Freddie Scappaticci (born c. 1946) was a purported former high-level
double agent in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), known by
the codename Stakeknife.

Contents

1 Early life
2 IRA career
3 Involvement with British Intelligence
4 Involvement with the Cook Report
5 Involvement with the Stevens Report
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Early life[edit]
Scappaticci[1] was born around 1946 and grew up in the Markets area of
Belfast, the son of Daniel Scappaticci, an Italian immigrant to the
city in the 1920s. In 1962 at the age of 16 he was encouraged to sign
for the football club Nottingham Forest although his father is said to
have resisted the idea. He took up work as a bricklayer.[2]
He was fined for riotous assembly in 1970 after being caught up in
"the Troubles" and, one year later, was interned without trial at the
age of 25 as part of Operation Demetrius.[2] Among those interned with
him were figures later to become prominent in the republican movement,
such as Ivor Bell, Gerry Adams, and Alex Maskey. He was released from
detention in 1974 and was by this time a member of the Provisional
IRA.[3]
IRA career[edit]
By 1980, Scappaticci was a lead member in the Internal Security Unit
(ISU) for the IRA Northern Command.[4] The ISU was a unit tasked with
counter-intelligence and the investigation of leaks within the IRA
along with the exposure of moles/informers (also known as "touts").
Via the ISU, Scappaticci played a key role in investigating suspected
informers, conducting inquiries into operations suspected of being
compromised, debriefing of IRA volunteers released from Royal Ulster
Constabulary and British Army questioning, and vetting of potential
IRA recruits. The ISU has also been referred to as the "Nutting
Squad". Various killings as a result of ISU activities have been
attributed to Scappaticci.[5]
After the original allegations broke in 2003, Scappaticci, by now
living in the Riverdale area of West Belfast, claimed his involvement
with the IRA ended in 1990 due to his wife's illness. He denied that
he had ever been linked to any facet of the British intelligence
services, including the Force Research Unit.[6]
Involvement with British Intelligence[edit]
Scappaticci's first involvement with British Intelligence is alleged
to have been in 1978, two years before the Force Research Unit (FRU)
was formed in 1980. He is said to have worked as an agent for the
Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) Special Branch. The role of the FRU
was to centralise Army Intelligence under the Intelligence Corps.
The former FRU agent turned whistleblower using the pseudonym "Martin
Ingram" has said in his 2004 book Stakeknife that Scappaticci
eventually developed into an agent handled by British Army
Intelligence via the FRU. Ingram says that Scapaticci's activities as
a high grade intelligence source came to his attention in 1982 after
Scappaticci was detained for a drunk driving offence. In 2003,
Scappaticci was alleged to have volunteered as an informer in 1978
after being assaulted in an argument with a fellow IRA member.[7]
Ingram paints Scappaticci at this time as "the crown jewels", (the
best) agent handled by the FRU. He cites a number of allegations
against Scappaticci. His accusations centre on various individuals who
died as a result of the activities of the ISU between 1980 and 1990.
Ingram also alleges that Scappaticci disclosed information to British
intelligence on IRA operations during the time period, involving:

IRA members involved in the kidnapping of wealthy Irish supermarket
magnate Ben Dunne in 1981. Ingram alleges that Scappaticci was
influential in identifying his kidnappers to the authorities.
the attempted kidnapping of Galen Weston, a Canadian born business
tycoon in 1983. Weston kept a manor outside Dublin where the
kidnapping was to take place.
the kidnapping of supermarket boss Don Tidey from his home in
Rathfarnham in Dublin. Ingram alleges that Scappaticci tipped off the
FRU on the details of the kidnapping which eventually resulted in the
killings of a trainee Garda Síochána (Gary Sheehan) and an Irish
Army soldier (Private Patrick Kelly).

Aside from providing intelligence to the FRU, Scappaticci is alleged
to have worked closely with his FRU handlers throughout the 1980s and
1990s to protect and promote his position within the IRA. The
controversy that has arisen centres on the allegation by Ingram that
Scappaticci's role as an informer was protected by the FRU through the
deaths of those who might have been in a position to expose him as a
British agent.[8]
On 11 April 2017, the BBC's Panorama programme featured a report on
'Stakeknife' entitled "The Spy in the IRA". Amongst those appearing
are the current Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions, Lord
Stevens, 'Martin Ingram' and several others from Northern Ireland.
Involvement with the Cook Report[edit]
In 1993 Scappaticci approached the ITV programme The Cook Report and
agreed to an interview on his activities in the IRA and the alleged
role of Martin McGuinness in the organisation. The first interview
took place on 26 August 1993 in the car park of the Culloden Hotel in
Cultra, County Down. This interview was, unknown to Scappaticci,
recorded and eventually found its way into an edition of the
programme. The interview was posted on the World Wide Web as the 2003
allegations against Scappaticci surfaced.
Scappaticci appears to give intimate details of the modus operandi of
the IRA's Northern Command, indicated some of his previous involvement
in the organisation and alleges, amongst other things, that Martin
McGuinness was involved in the death of Frank Hegarty – an IRA
volunteer who had been killed as an informer by the IRA in 1986. It
has since been alleged that Scappaticci knew the intimate details of
Hegarty's killing because, as part of his duties in the ISU, he had
reportedly been involved in the interrogation and execution of Hegarty
regarding a large Libyan arms cache, which the Gardaí found. Ingram
stated that Hegarty was a FRU agent whom other FRU members had
encouraged to rise through the organisation and gain the confidence of
key IRA members. His allegations indicate that, to the handlers of the
FRU, it was more important to keep Stakeknife in place rather than
save the life of Hegarty.[9]
Involvement with the Stevens Report[edit]
Things deteriorated for Scappaticci when Sir John Stevens, the
Metropolitan police commissioner who has been probing RUC and British
Army collusion with loyalist paramilitaries in the killing of
Protestant student, Brian Adam Lambert in 1987 and the killing of
solicitor Pat Finucane in 1989, revealed that he knew of his
existence. In April 2004, Stevens signalled that he intended to
question Scappaticci as part of the third Stevens inquiry.
A report in a February 2007 edition of the Belfast News Letter
reported that a cassette recording allegedly of Scappaticci talking
about the number of murders he was involved in via the "Nutting
Squad", as well as his work as an Army agent, had been lodged with the
PSNI in 2004 and subsequently passed to the Stevens Inquiry in
2005.[10] It is unclear whether this audio is a recording made via the
Cook Report investigation. There were several inconsistencies with the
various media reports alleging that Scappaticci was Stakeknife. The
Provisional IRA reportedly assured Scappaticci of their belief in his
denials, and has issued public statements suggesting that the
announcement of the former as a "tout" was a stunt by the British
government to undermine Sinn Féin and the Republican movement.[11]
See also[edit]

Thomas Oliver (farmer)

References[edit]

^ Wallace, William (19 May 2003). "Trail for Truth on Alleged Spy in
IRA Proves Tricky". Los Angeles Times. I don't know where Alfredo
comes from. I have always been Freddie. It's on my birth
certificate
^ a b Rosie Cowan, Ireland correspondent. "He did the IRA's dirty work
for 25 years - and was paid £80,000 a year by the government UK
news". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-08-20.
^ By Scappaticci's own admission he joined the IRA in 1969, see
interview with The Cook Report in External Links.
^ "He did the IRA's dirty work for 25 years - and was paid £80,000 a
year by the government", theguardian.com, 12 May 2003; accessed 5 June
2014.
^ "Freddie Scappaticci was our most valuable spy in IRA during the
Troubles", belfasttelegraph.co.uk; accessed 5 June 2014.
^ Report on Scappaticci, rte.ie; 16 May 2003; accessed 5 June 2014.
^ Cowan, Rosie (12 May 2003). "He did the IRA's dirty work for 25
years – and was paid £80,000 a year by the government". The
Guardian.
^ Joseph Fitsanikis (2015-10-25). "UK to probe role of high-ranking
IRA informant in 24 murder cases". IntelNews.org. Retrieved
2015-10-25. They [the victim's families] argued that, if STAKEKNIFE
was indeed a British government informant, and if he was personally
involved in the murder of alleged IRA informants, then the British
authorities technically allowed him to get away with murder in order
to protect his secret identity. The government, therefore, technically
colluded in the murders and should be held responsible.
^ Article by agent "Martin Ingram" on the abandonment of Operation
Taurus and the killing of Frank Hegarty Archived 28 September 2007 at
the Wayback Machine., cryptome.quintessenz.at/mirror/ingram-spies.htm;
accessed 5 June 2014.
^ "Stakeknife tape emerges after News Letter probe". Belfast News
Letter. 5 February 2007.
^ "Scappaticci's Nightmare". The Sunday Business Post. 31 August 2007.
Archived from the original on 19 February 2006.